The WordPress.org blog post has details of what’s new in WordPress 4.4. Generally speaking, this update doesn’t include many changes that WP Admin users will notice — most of the changes in WordPress 4.4 are under the hood (though, they are very exciting changes, none-the-less).

We have already begun testing this version and a few earlier adopter WP NET users will receive the update shortly. Other sites may need to wait a little longer while we test and do the best we can to ensure a smooth upgrade. … continues

Important: Envato — the owners of ThemeForest and CodeCanyon — have launched a new Support Policy which affects all past and future purchases. If you use ThemeForest WordPress themes and / or CodeCanyon WordPress plugins — please take note.

The Envato Market — specifically the ThemeForest and CodeCanyon websites — are probably the most popular sources of premium WordPress themes and plugins. Many WP NET customers use ThemeForest themes, and so we thought it important that we bring to your attention some important changes recently introduced.

An article recently published on ZDNet suggests that much of WordPress’s security woes are due to lack of knowledge on the part of the administrator. Security — an area that is often overlooked or left out of the budget altogether — if left unchecked, can make your website an easy target.

Frequently, if a handful of straightforward, proven security hardening measures had been completed, many sites would not have fallen prey to their attackers. … continues

An interesting article was recently published on ZDNet, highlighting the increasing risks associated with unmanaged WordPress hosting.

In particular, the recent vulnerability discovered in the ubiquitous Slider Revolution plugin (and the subsequent controversy about the management of it’s disclosure and patching) has raised important questions regarding WordPress management and security.

At what technical level, is it accepted that a website owner has the necessary know-how to secure a website, protect it against attacks and detect when problems occur? As WordPress becomes ever more popular around the world — so too does the need for focus on security, performance and scalability.

… security is an even bigger imperative. Many WordPress sites belong to people who don’t know jack about computers, let alone web site administration. These users are much better off with a WordPress environment in which their options are limited, but their safety protected.

In 2015, it will be more important than ever to ensure that your WordPress installations are secure and up to date.

WordPress 3.9 is looking fine, with the beta released this morning. Noteable new features include:

We updated TinyMCE, the software powering the visual editor, to the latest version. Be on the lookout for cleaner markup. Also try the new paste handling — if you paste in a block of text from Microsoft Word, for example, it will no longer come out terrible.

Widget management to live previews (the customiser).

Galleries now receive a live preview in the editor. Upload some photos and insert a gallery to see this in action.

You can now drag-and-drop images directly onto the editor to upload them.

Some things got improved around editing images. It’s a lot easier to make changes to an image after you insert it into a post and you no longer get kicked to a new window when you need to crop or rotate an image.

New audio/video playlists. Upload a few audio or video files to test these.